VanyelYasha
by Shadowfax
Summary: Late one night in the author’s sleep fogged brain, the worlds of Mercedes Lackey and Rumiko Takahashi merged… New and improved, The More Awake Version!
1. Keeper of the Jewel

Late one night in the author's sleep fogged brain, the worlds of Mercedes Lackey and Rumiko Takahashi merged… New and improved: The More Awake Version!

Heralds of Valdemar and _Inuyasha_ are the intellectual property of Mercedes Lackey and Rumiko Takahashi, respectively, and no infringement or disrespect is intended by this nonprofit fanwork.  
(Depending on how far this story gets, there will be SPOILERS for just about every book in the Heralds of Valdemar series, and for _Inuyasha_... through season 2-ish.)

Enjoy!

* * *

"VanyelYasha"

-1-  
Keeper of the Jewel  
-

The wind riffled through his hair as he stood looking down over the village in the predawn. Its inhabitants slept peacefully and he hated them for it. He was betrayed... by the one person he held most dear. He was betrayed by everyone.

An ear flicked at a sound on the breeze and suddenly he was gone, riding the breeze like a ghost.

A girl outside her home fetching water from a well glimpsed him and gasped, her bucket rolling away from her on the ground. He didn't pause, didn't acknowledge her. He moved on through the growing light, a shadow in the mist. He was intent upon a certain goal- intent upon purging a certain feeling.

He stopped outside the temple, his feet coming to rest as he stood and stared at the building, every line of it seeming to mock him. There were no guards at the temple, no human souls at all this early in the day.

Human...

He scoffed and stepped forward, self-deprecation in his every motion as he walked into the temple. Human... something he'd never been. Something he'd always wanted to be. Something he'd never thought he could be until... He stood in the inner temple, the jewel hanging before him, suspended on its pedestal. He reached out a hand and touched a finger to its pearlescent surface, then after a pause he closed his fist around it. The jewel fit easily against the palm of his hand, smooth against rough calluses there.

"Vanyel."

He froze for a moment then turned to who had spoken. He tried to control it, but his voice was thin as he murmured back, "'Lendel."

Tylendel leaned heavily against the doorway where he stood framed; the smell of blood was all around him. "Why, Van?" he murmured, desperation in his voice. "Why this betrayal?" He stumbled forward, falling to his knees. Raising a hand, he threw a spell at the other man, pinning him back against the wall.

"'Lendel!" His voice disbelieving, Vanyel watched distractedly as the jewel fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers and rolled across the floor toward Tylendel. "But, 'Lendel, what..." The words dragged from him with increasing difficulty, as the spell took hold.

Tylendel fell forward again, catching himself on his hands as he knelt on the cold stone, tears streaming down his face to mingle with the blood and fall to the floor. He reached out a hand and trembling fingers took hold of the jewel. "'Lendel!" a voice called, and Tylendel turned his head toward the girl who ran up to him.

"Savil," he murmured, "I... I can't... it won't be much longer." She cried out in denial, her hand clutching in his robe as he started coughing uncontrollably, his hand clenching around the jewel. "Savil," he said, his voice rough. "The jewel... burn it." He shuddered. "Burn it with my body. I will take it from this world, away from those whom it would corrupt. Savil..." He coughed again, blood visible on the hand he held to his mouth.

Tears on her own face, the girl moved to comfort him. "It will be done, I swear it. Oh, 'Lendel..." She clung to him, trying to hide her tears against his bloodied robe, as life slowly left his body. Others began to appear, standing around them, quiet as they saw what had happened.

Savil wiped her tears away, raising her eyes from the still body before her. "With my brother's death I assume the protection of this temple," she said, her voice calm with her new authority. She lifted the jewel from his hand and held it in her own smaller one, looking at it. "His remains will need to be prepared for the ceremony of passing." Her fingers closed over the jewel, hiding it from her eyes. "He will protect us in death even as he did in life."

The people of the small village nodded and hurried to carry out her wishes. She was young to come to it, but she was the heir of the power of the keeper of the jewel; even though, as the village all watched in sorrow later that day as the flames leapt high on the pyre, there was no longer a jewel to keep. Freedom from that burden was sweet to taste, but at such a price... it was a bitter thing as well.

Savil brushed tears from her face and turned away from the fire to the leader of the guard. "What of the Well's Guardian?"

He hesitated before answering her. "Priestess, we cannot find the Guardian." He and the village headman exchanged a series of significant looks. "Priestess, I..." He hesitated, the stated what he thought to be truth. "Priestess the Guardian has left. It left your brother, because of the sin he committed."

Savil stared at the man; drawing herself up to her full height, she met his defiant gaze. "How dare you," she hissed. "How dare you say such things about "Lendel! He was devoted to the Guardian, and he was committed to the guardianship of the jewel." She glared at guardsman, her body shaking with fury. "How _dare_ you."

The village headman touched the guardsman's shoulder, stepping forward. "Priestess, he is not the only one to think so." He narrowed his eyes at her, not wilting before her righteous stare. "He is not the only one to know about Tylendel's relationship with the demon."

Savil glared at both of them defiantly. "You're wrong. 'Lendel would never do anything to betray the trust of the Guardian." She faltered, a hesitation crossing her face, and she scowled when she knew they had seen it. "Never," she repeated demandingly. She folded her arms belligerently and said, "The Guardian probably left because without the jewel, there is no reason to guard the Well." There was a long period of silence, before she continued, mollifying, "We should still patrol the forest, for awhile at least, until she comes back." They nodded, deciding to leave the matter at that; she returned the gesture then turned and walked away.

She tried not to run, but soon she was, her feet carrying her swiftly toward the temple. She ducked inside; the heavy silence was the sweetest noise she'd heard all day, and the coolness of the stone beneath her feet comforted her. She moved in to the interior room, sliding in to sit against the wall and burying her face in her drawn up knees. This room had always been a place of comfort and peace for her, but now she turned her head and saw the limp form of the demon hanging there, suspended eternally by the power of her brother's magic. She glared and murmured, "Idiot." She curled up on the floor, hands clasped around her knees, and watched the still form, sorrow on her face.

--


	2. Guardian of the Well

-2-  
Guardian of the Well  
-

Stef was hungry. It was hardly worth the mentioning, since he spent a great deal of time in that state, but today it seemed especially intent on announcing itself. He tried to ignore it; his fingers plucked at the strings of the gittern that lay across his lap and even in his distraction they didn't slip or miss a note. The money came in freely, the coins clicking together in the hat he'd laid down, plentiful as it always was- before Berte got her hands on it. He sighed and turned his attention back to playing. He usually got a good crowd when he played here, on the steps of the old temple.

A sound behind him made Stef turn; it was a cat, a white queen who eyed him cautiously as she descended the steps to sit near him. He scratched the offered cheek during a pause in playing but smiled ruefully at the creature. "No food here; sorry puss." The cat watched him carefully with soulful blue eyes that showed brightly against the paleness of her coat.

A premonition more than any physical sense made him look up to see Berte coming toward him. He grimaced and wasn't surprised when the cat took herself from beside him. What did surprise him was that she bounded up the stairs and into the temple, pausing to meow at him pointedly before she passed through the door. Stef blinked. The temple was sealed shut, had been forever... so he'd thought. His eyes darted to Berte, coming closer now, though she hadn't yet seen him. The cat was back, sitting on the top step of the temple and staring at him with wide blue eyes, and something made him quickly gather his instrument and the money and slip up the steps like a ghost, following the cat into the gloom of the temple. "It's nice in here puss," he commented, his voice soft, reluctant to disturb the silence but also finding the heaviness of it disconcerting. He walked forward through the temple, taking note of the rooms as he passed though them. The decor was archaic; dust and dirt lay think on every surface. The cat's footprints were everywhere, showing that she lived here, and Stef turned to look behind him and see his own footprints in the dust marking his passage. His feet whispered against the cool stone floor, but there was no other sound in the temple and Stef clutched his belongings to his chest as he looked around him, wide-eyed. No one had been in this temple in... centuries, he was certain. Everyone knew it had been sealed shut long ago, though obviously that was no longer true.

Moving into a room deep within the temple, Stef suddenly felt a thrill of energy pass through him. He stopped walking and stood for a long moment, staring at the room. It was larger than most of the rooms he had come through, with a recessed dais in the center; most of the dais area and the wall farthest from Stef were covered in ivy. Slowly, he walked into the room and set his gittern down on a stone bench just within the doorway. Looking up in wonder, he wandered further into the room. It was magnificent...

A noise behind him made him turn, a shiver running down his spine as he saw no one there. He turned back to observing the room, but he heard the noise again. "Puss?" he called hesitantly. There was no answer, but he wondered whether receiving one would have unsettled him more. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow move and he turned toward it, his blood racing. Again, there was nothing there and Stef started edging toward the door.

The cat suddenly leapt out in front of him, her hair all on end, and Stef nearly jumped out of his skin. The cat hissed meaningfully, her ears laid back, her animosity aimed at a particular shadow in the doorway, and, suddenly, a shape moved in that shadow. Stef gasped, clutching his reacquired gittern to his chest, his entire being going cold. He'd never seen anything like this... this... creature. It vaguely resembled a sight hound, but with the scaly skin of a reptile and green, evil eyes. Stef was retreating even before he was consciously aware of his movements. The creature paced toward him slowly, its jaws opening as its eyes focused on Stef and something inside of Stef flared with a sudden rush of energy. He put a hand to his side at the sudden pain there, and was disturbed to see the creature's eyes follow his movement. A low growling noise off to his right drew his attention and he saw another one of the creatures appear out of the shadows. His heart was hammering as he backed against the far wall, his fingers curling in the think ivy. He prayed there was a door, some opening, hidden beneath the green cover, but his hands were disappointed as they frantically searched the stone wall there. The cat turned toward him suddenly, her eyes narrowed to slits and her mouth opened in a snarl. She hissed something that sounded almost like words, and Stef found the ivy under his hand dissolving suddenly, himself falling back... through the wall.

He felt himself hit the ground, and he thought he slept because the next thing he knew he was waking, curled up on the cool stone floor, his gittern held gently against his chest. He sat up, looking around himself at the recently familiar landscape of the interior temple room- but something about the room felt... wrong to him. He had just realized there was no dust on the floor when he turned around and looked at the far wall.

There was less ivy but it still covered a large portion of the wall, as well as most of the body of a young man that hung pinned there. As soon as he saw the man, Stef stared. He was... beautiful; pinned to the wall, apparently by an arrow that pierced the left side of his chest, his eyes were closed as if sleeping. White lashes kissed his cheek, white hair fell over his shoulders, and pointed furry ears poked up from the top of his head. His features were becoming clearer... and Stef realized it was because he was walking toward the suspended figure. He paused, then gave in to the impulse that was pulling him toward the man. He reached out, his hand suspended in the air as he tried to decide which to touch first- that perfectly formed face, or those ears that appeared impossibly soft.

"Halt!"

Stef jumped at the voice, snatching his hand back and whirling around to find a trio of guards standing in the doorway. "Um, I didn't mean to trespass, but it was open and..."

A spear pointed at his throat stopped his nervous babbling and Stef stood silently as the guards watched him warily. "What is your name?" one of them demanded. "What are you doing in the forbidden temple?" Stef could only gape at them.

One of the other guards touched the lead guard's shoulder and murmured something in his ear. They glanced at each other, incredulity on their faces. "Do you see it?" the guard murmured.

The lead guard shook his head. "You are imagining things." He hesitated. "Still... we should tell the Priestess." All three of them nodded.

Stef just stared. "What... is going on?" Looking at them he had realized that their uniforms were unfamiliar to him; they looked... ancient, like clothing he would see in tapestries or mocked up for plays. Their speech was also strange and he submitted to their direction warily as they instructed him to walk before them out of the temple. Stef sighed; this trip in the temple had been interesting, strange creatures and the local bard troupe notwithstanding, but Berte was probably waiting outside ready to take his earnings and squander them on her poison. The foursome stepped outside of the temple and Stef froze, staring around him with dropped jaw and wide eyes.

The square where he'd played only moments ago was gone. The _city_ was gone... Huge trees spread out before him in a forest as wild as any he'd heard of in tales of the Pelagirs. The guards were alert as they escorted him through the forest to a small village nearby. Villagers stared at him as the group passed, curiosity clear on their faces. Many of them whispered to themselves, giving Stef strange looks, some even making strange gestures of respect as he passed. He felt his skin crawling, and he was relieved when they came to a doorway and his guard motioned that he should enter.

Two of the guards waited outside but the lead of the group came inside with him, standing between him and the old woman who seemed to be the dwelling's only occupant. She sat cross-legged before the fire, dressed in white, and looked up at him with piercing eyes. She sat staring at him for a few moments, and Stef felt an uncomfortable pressure descending on him, pushing him to speak.

"Look," Stef swallowed nervously, "I didn't mean any harm by going in the temple, it's just that the cat seemed to want me to, so if you'll just point me in the right direction I'll be on my way and I won't trouble you any further."

The woman didn't move. Stef hesitated; had she heard him? The moments stretched out.

When she did finally speak, it was such a shock that Stef jumped again. "What cat?"

He stared at her. "The cat?"

She nodded encouragingly. "What did it look like?"

"She... had bright blue eyes... And her fur was white all over."

The woman nodded, as if a question had just been answered. "Please, have a seat."

Stef hesitated, glancing at the guard, then slowly moved to sit cross-legged, mirroring the old woman.

What is your name boy?" she asked.

"Stefen," he replied hesitantly.

"I'm Savil, the priestess of this village," she replied easily. "To answer your earlier desire- it seems the Guardian brought you here, so you will have to find a way to contact her if you wish to return to wherever it is that you came here from."

Stef frowned. "The... Guardian? And... where am I exactly?"

Savil smiled, the expression not entirely settling. "It might be more precise to ask _when_ are you, for I will assume you came through the Well. To start at the beginning, the Guardian is the spirit which exists to protect the timewell, what we call simply the Well- a fixed time gate. You saw her in the shape of a cat, though Gala is able to take many forms." The woman's face was sad for a moment. "She has not been seen in recent years, so you must be someone special that she deigned to appear to you." Her eyes bore into Stef, her expression growing distant. "Very special. Indeed... there is something about you... very faint." She shook her head. "At any rate, you are welcome to stay here in the village for as long as you like before you attempt to contact the Guardian and arrange passage home."

Stef nodded dumbly, too shocked to do much else. Though there was one thing that still troubled him enough to penetrate his fog, and he shuddered as he thought of the creatures he had seen in the temple. "Those creatures in the temple, the big dogs? Are they yours?"

Savil's eyes narrowed as she focused on him intently. "Big dogs? What do you mean?"

Stef frowned. "The creatures... in the temple? They look like... I dunno, big dogs with," he shuddered, "skin like snakes."

Savil's eyes flew open wide as she pushed herself up from her seat. "Wyrsa? You saw wyrsa in the temple?"

Stef stood, backing toward the door warily. "I guess... I'm not sure what that is, but I saw big, black, dog-like creatures in the temple."

The guardsman exchanged a look with Savil, both of them moving past Stef to step outside and call to the other guards. Stef followed them out, watching as the three guards who had found him in the temple gathered three more and the half dozen of them started back toward the temple.

Savil turned back to Stef only to find him gone. Cursing, she ran after the guardsmen, toward the forest.

--

Stef followed the guardsmen, not really sure why he did so. Some part of him felt a connection with the temple, and a deep desire to go there... and another part of him just wanted to see if he could find this "Guardian." Unused to the forest, he soon fell behind the guardsmen and, after a particularly nasty stumble that caused him to fall headlong in the dirt, he stood up to find his guides had moved far ahead of him and he had no idea which way through the heavy growth of the forest was the way that lead either to the temple or back to the village. There was no clear path between the two places and he cursed that fact in a low voice as he tried to decide which way to go. He thought he'd found the way that would lead him to the temple when something flitting through the trees off to his right caused him to turn toward it. It was something large and white, and it paused a moment to look at him with soulful blue eyes before it moved on. He followed, absolute certainty in him that he was being lead to the temple.

He was right. Stepping out of the close trees, Stef could see the temple in the clearing before him, its smooth stone walls gleaming despite the wear of age. He heard voices from within and he crept to the doorway, keeping close to the wall, not wanting the guardsmen to see him. They were searching the rooms with methodical precision and Stef slipped past them, something drawing him again to the inner room.

The strange looking man was still there, pinned to the wall. Stef wondered why he'd thought there might be a change in that condition; while the man appeared to be alive, the ivy that wound around his body seemed to say that he hadn't moved at all in a long, long time. Stef found himself drawn to the sleeping figure and he crossed the room with slow, measured steps, eyes fixed on his destination so that he almost didn't see the shadow that moved in the corner of the room. Halting instantly Stef spun around, trying to catch sight of the shadow again. What he did find was Savil, standing in the doorway watching him intently.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, her voice calm but seething with emotion under that calm.

"I..." He swallowed. "I think I just saw one of those things again."

She glanced around the room and called to one of the guardsmen behind her who immediately entered the room. Savil stepped down into the center of the room, walking toward Stef and stepping up again to stand on the dais near him. "Why did you come here?" she asked him, her eyes watching him closely.

"I... I don't know," he admitted, arms rubbing his shoulders as he hugged them around himself, the room feeling cold. "It just felt like... I should come here," he finished lamely.

Savil nodded, accepting the explanation. She opened her mouth to respond but an unearthly hiss filled the room, cutting off her words. Whirling toward the noise, Savil placed a protective hand on Stef's shoulder. Both of them and the lone guardsman in the room watched with horror as three of the wyrsa appeared in the doorway, slinking their way into the room, their glowing eyes fixed on Stef. One by one they all opened their mouths and hissed again.

Stef felt again the strange pain in his side. He tried to ignore it, but the sheer intensity of it pulled a groan from him. His eyes were squeezed shut but he felt Savil turn to him, her voice sudden and excited in his ear but her words not making sense. The hissing of the wyrsa was getting louder, the three notes echoing off each other like a parody of music... or like a summons. The summons and pain both grew until Stef couldn't take it any more; he reached down and clawed at his side, demanding that this strange pain stop or he would tear whatever was causing it from his body and stop it that way.

Strangely, it worked. His desperate fingers clawed at his skin, drawing blood, and suddenly something hard and round tumbled into his hand. His fingers closed around it like a vise, and a strange pulse of energy echoed through the room. The wyrsa had stopped hissing and were staring at Stef again.

He stood gasping for breath and staring up at Savil with wide eyes. Her eyes were just as wide as she stared back at him, her hand catching him by the wrist, turning his own fisted hand so that she could glimpse what he held, bright light emanating from it so thickly it spilled over Stef's fingers like water. "It cannot be," she murmured. "You..." But then the wyrsa attacked, and there wasn't time for words.

Savil thrust Stef behind her, drawing a sword and blocking the creature as it leapt at them. The guardsman joined her, and together they attempted to hold off the three animals. But the wyrsa moved like snakes and one slipped between their guard, slavering jaws headed right at Stef. He ducked away from it, stumbling and falling as he tried to run, his head whirling and his heart pounding in his ears as he felt his own blood dripping down his side from the wound he'd made. The wyrsa was so close he could already feel its teeth closing on him; dimly he heard Savil shouting, but again her words were meaningless noise. He thrust out his hand and the wyrsa, desperately trying to fend it off, the only thought in his mind,_ I don't want to die... _

Power pooled in his hand and struck out at the wyrsa, throwing it away from him. Stef stared at his hand as if it belonged to someone else, though Savil's shouting eventually penetrated his daze and he scrambled to his feet. "Vanyel!" she was shouting as she and the guardsman pinned down one of the wyrsa, their swords tearing apart its body, her words finally making sense to Stef. "Go to Vanyel," she yelled to him, "he will protect you!"

Somehow, though the name was unfamiliar to him, Stef understood what she meant. The third wyrsa was watching him, was stalking toward him from where it was currently on the far side of the room from him, and he was running, running toward the wall of ivy and the man that slept there.

Bloody hands tangled in the twisting vines of the ivy, and Stef pulled himself up so that he was face to face with the taller man. One hand was still clutching the orb that he had pulled from his body, its glowing light unfaded, the other hand drawn to the arrow in the man's chest. His fingers curled around it, the man suddenly moving beneath him, his eyes blinking as he looked sleepily at Stef. "'Lendel," he murmured, and Stef felt a thrill of warmth rush through him at the sound of that voice.

"I don't know who that is," he mumbled back, "but please wake up before the monsters eat us." His fingers tightened around the arrow and he pulled back, the object shattering into motes of light in his fingers.

The pair of them tumbled to the floor and Stef looked up to find wide silver eyes staring down at him. Silver-white hair tumbled around them and the man's lips parted to reveal pointed white fangs as he stared at Stef in confusion. "Who," he started to ask, but was interrupted as the two remaining wyrsa hissed demandingly and leapt at Stef.

Rising with an ease that belied the fact that he'd just spent the past fifty years confined unmoving, the demon- for that's what this beautiful creature must be, Stef thought- stood and eyed the wyrsa. He raised a hand and fingers tipped with claws grabbed the wyrsa by the neck as it leapt; the demon yanked the body to the side, throwing it down on the ground and neatly severing its head from its body with his other hand. He crouched and jumped up, catching the other wyrsa in the air, shredding it to pieces. He fell to earth again, turning to face the three humans who stood, staring at him.

--


End file.
